September 24, 2010

September 22, 2010

The other day my train to New York from New Jersey was rerouted unexpectedly. I usually take a train that goes directly to Penn Station, but signal problems caused all trains to instead be routed to the World Trade Center stop.

No longer does that stop take you to a financial building, but instead you are let off in a construction site, one that even 10 years later has a somber tone to it. You step off the escalator and find yourself in an empty space, or what simply feels empty, even in the midst of a hundred fellow displaced New Jersey Transit passengers.

I hope no matter what gets built there they never change the name of the stop. I know that for myself, I will always think of it as the World Trade Center station.

August 2, 2010

The first thing I see when I wake up on a weekday is a line of shirts hanging on my bedroom mantle. R irons his shirts for work on Sunday nights and hangs them there so they stay wrinkle free. Now normally, such a sight would drive the obsessive-compulsive organizer in me to shout expletives from the rooftops and head for the nearest Target for behind-the-door hooks, but instead I find that I look forward to waking up to my own personal weekend countdown.

Today is a 4 shirts left day. My least favorite of all of the days. Slowly but surely though, the number gets shorter until those lovely 1 shirt and 0 shirt days come. Until Sunday night, when the stock gets replenished and the count starts all over again.

These little things are exactly what my life was missing when I was single.

Follow the directions on the pie crust packaging for double pie crust. While filling, first spoon 2 Tbsp of sauce on the pie crust and spread to cover. Add meatballs and top with remaining sauce and cheese. Continue with the rest of the directions on the package, baking 20 minutes or until the top is golden.

I had to cover the edges of my crust halfway through with foil so they didn’t burn and I definitely suggest doing this. This was SO yummy that I can’t wait to have the leftovers for lunch today!!

July 19, 2010

I haven’t blogged in nearly a month??? Well, you guys are in desperate need of a catch up then! A lot has happened!

First and foremost, I have fled NYC and have moved across the river to New Jersey! I am loving my new digs and have been having fun turning the “his bachelor pad” into “our home”. I have also recently purchased a new car, so I can most often be seen riding around town in my cute VW Tiguan cranking some tunes! Ok fine…in all honesty it’s more like I can most often be found in the Trader Joes parking lot trying to prevent the shopping cart from hitting my beloved new car, but I’m not ready to fully embrace my pseudo-New Jersey housewife status quite yet.

I love having a proper kitchen again and do NOT miss my “no counters, minimal cabinet space, tiny apt oven” NYC kitchen at all. I’ve been cooking up a storm lately trying out new recipes. I’ve had numerous successes, and just one minor fail involving a very salty pork tenderloin. Most of my successes involve ingredients from the garden, where R’s mom grows herbs, tomatoes, peppers, snap peas and all kinds of tasty things! We are definitely spoiled by her green thumb!

Also, I have gotten myself addicted to Lost. I never saw the show or got into it while it was on, but in a recent bout with boredom and some Hulu browsing led to the realization that the entire series is on Hulu right now, so I have started from the beginning and am almost done with season 1. I have to limit myself to only watching 2 episodes a day though or else my dreams get kind of intense. I’m glad I didn’t get into this show when I was traveling a lot though…I’m not sure when I’ll be ready to get back on a plane again after so much crash footage!

I also celebrated a 2 year milestone with my photography company. I can’t thank everyone enough for supporting me throughout the years! It’s just proof that dreams really can be made into reality.

June 25, 2010

Tonight R and I are hosting a small gathering of people in our “new” house. The plan is to attempt grilling pizza and I am hoping my visions of smoky, slightly charred bits of cheesy goodness aren’t dashed my a ruined grill with dough bits sinking through the slats, but I digress.

Last night I needed to make a couple of batches of dough for our party and I asked R if I could borrow his mom’s KitchenAid Mixer for the job. He went and got it for me and left me to my dough making.

I dumped the ingredients in the bowl and set it to mix and in 5 minutes had an amazingly perfect dough ball that I may have shed a tear over. I went down the hall to find him and looked into his eyes and said “I’m in love”. He gazed adoringly into my eyes and said “I love you too, baby.”

I looked down at my feet and turned bright red. He looks at me and says “Oh. You meant the mixer didn’t you?”

June 14, 2010

I can’t believe I have neglected my poor blog this long. I went and fell in love, moved across state lines and got a Nook and became a bad blogger! To make up for it, I will share with you the BEST recipe I have made in a long while! My weekends have been full of packing, Ikea furniture buying and building and errands, but I managed to make this AMAZING dinner in the crockpot this weekend that was a total crowd pleaser! If you can call me and my boyfriend a crowd…but I digress.

Cook on low in crock-pot for 6-8 hours (time will vary depending on your particular appliance). When done, remove chicken and fork-shred. Return chicken to crock-pot and mix with other ingredients. Serve as taco filling, or as taco salad, or nachos or over rice. Left-overs freeze beautifully.

We served this over taco chips with refried beans, guacamole and sour cream. It was DELISH and will definitely be added to the household rotation!

May 26, 2010

I stumbled across a recipe for burgers in a recent issue of Clean Eating Magazine and I just HAD to adapt it for my non-beef eating self. Try this out, you won’t be disappointed!!

Inside-Out Cheese Sliders

1 lb ground turkey or chicken

1/4 tsp sea salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

1 oz cheddar cheese cubes (approx 1/4 cup of cubes)

3 tbsp whole-grain mustard

1 tbsp honey

8 small whole wheat dinner rolls

1/2 cup packed baby spinach leaves

Combine meat with salt and pepper and divide into 8 equal meatballs. Divide cheese into 8 equal portions. Insert cheese cubes into each ball and flatten into a small patty. Make sure meat covers cheese to prevent leaking.

Grill up the pattys. While grilling combine mustard and honey and brush on pattys before serving. Top with lettuce and a bun and enjoy! No ketchup needed!

April 6, 2010

I stumbled across Jamie Oliver’s new show Food Revolution while browsing Hulu while bored one day at work home and instantly became hooked. I remember my own school lunch being french fries or a huge soft pretzel and a soda. I always chose to go through the ala carte line instead of the “real food” line. I honestly couldn’t even tell you what kind of food the other line even offered and whether it was healthy or not. I checked my old school website today to view the “real food” line lunch choices. There were 7 options: 1) Corn Dog 2) Hamburger on bun 3) Cheeseburger on bun 4) Chicken patty on bun 5) Pizza 6) Italian sub 7) Chef salad. Fruit and fries were the side dish options.

I don’t blame the schools as much as the show seems to, I take full responsibility for making poor food choices. Though perhaps limited, healthier options were available to me, I just never chose them. Still though, I like the idea of bringing awareness to what we are eating and the impact it is having. In recent years I have made an effort to cook more from scratch, but I still struggle with good vs. bad choices daily. I definitely do agree though that if we can educate kids both at home and/or school to make the better choices, a food revolution WILL come.

Until then I’ll be sitting on my butt eating fries….just kidding. Sort of.